Men I Trust (MIT) is a Canadian band formed in Québec City, Canada in 2014. They released a new single on September 10, 2024, “Husk.” The band announced the release of the new single on social media only two days before it dropped, with no other details besides the date and time of the drop, as well as a part of the album cover (a wizard’s head). The song follows the band’s typical trend of dreamy-synth beats with a prominent bass line, often classified as “dream pop.”
However, in the band’s recent album releases, such as Oncle Jazz (2019) and the Untourable Album (2021), MIT experimented with more jazz-like sounds; Jessy Caron (guitar and bass) revealed in an interview that the band has been listening to, “…mostly jazz. Some Bill Evans, Chet Baker and Ahmad Jamal.”
These artists were certainly an inspiration to the band; traces of their sounds can be seen in many of the band’s albums. The single “Husk” also exhibits aspects of this jazz inspiration. The medley of sounds and overall feeling that MIT’s new single conveys makes it 100% worth a listen and maybe even worth adding to your playlist.
“Husk” begins with a funky and catchy bass line that is soon paired with the band’s typical synth sound. Even with the aspects of jazz that the band likes to incorporate, the sound is still undeniably ‘pop’. Singer Emmanuelle Proulx, revealed in an interview that growing up she “…had lots of great pop music playing in the house…: Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Sade, Mariah Carey, and Michael Jackson, to name a few.” This comes as no surprise, as it is evident in the band’s songs that they are heavily inspired by these great pop stars.
However, MIT blends their inspirations from jazz, pop, as well as punk-rock together to create something that many describe as “dream pop.” This subgenre is known for “breathy vocals” (a staple of MIT), reverb, heavy guitar, and typically slow-tempo music.
Other examples of typically classified “dream pop” bands comparable to MIT would be Mazzy Star or Cocteau Twins; their sounds can be reminiscent of each other on many accounts.
MIT has disclosed that their writing style is unconventional; in the way that each member of the band will take the song and work on it in his or her own time, bring it back to the group, and someone else will take it and tweak it until the song is considered releasable. The lyrics are poetic and sung in short, stanza-like phrases. The brevity of the lyrics conveys the words in a dynamic and easy-to-follow manner. This is helpful because with so much going on in the background of the song, the soft-sung words could easily be lost otherwise.
Speaking of which, Proulx’s vocals are known for being ghostly, soft, and hypnotic; “Husk” is no exception. The contrast between the soft vocals and the hearty bass line provides a dynamic sound that is not only enjoyable to listen to but sticks in your mind long after the song is over.
“Husk” also creates a feeling of calm and positivity, not by accident either. Dragos Chiriac (keyboard) said in an interview that MIT aims to create uplifting and positive music: “It’s true that we like smooth sounds! …It’s always nice when someone uses his time to project something beautiful onto the world, especially in these times, because we’re already saturated by content that looks at the world, ourselves and others, through the ugly lens.” “Husk” is something beautiful that MIT has projected onto the world.
The single is 100% worth a listen. Due to the complex sound, vocals, lyrics, and overall atmosphere created, “Husk” is a success of a song. As the band says, “We always focus on creating songs that convey a sense of storytelling with strong melodies,” and I could not explain the single in any better way.
